When a lonesome little Jewish girl comes to stay at the Convent San Tanco while her parents are away on business, Sister Bertrille takes on chief babysitting duties--and perhaps goes too far in the Big Sister department before pre-teen Linda Shapiro announces she wants to become a nun, too. This episode from "The Flying Nun"'s first season is already showing a desperate need to placate the audience with easy humor (to relieve the overwrought non-dramatics). When Linda's parents first see their child happily dressed in nun's garb, they look as if they're about to fall to pieces! No one thinks of simply explaining to Linda that the Jewish religion doesn't include nuns--or, heaven forbid, discuss the notion of possible religious conversion down the line. No, instead we have Sister Bertrille hauling out her home-movies of when she was a youngster, allowing the producers to intercut scenes from their previous series "Gidget". Linda sees that Sister Bertrille took a different path in life, and that it's okay to have various interests before you grow into adulthood (although her worry-wart parents still don't look too happy). Pamelyn Ferdin is an excellent child-actress, and it's nice that Sally Field's Sister doesn't try to hide the fact she can fly from Linda. But the easy-outs taken here are frustrating, and the starchy interplay between the Reverend Mother and her charges doesn't leave much room for witty interaction.
